Successful Baby Names – Names at Oxford University

When parents spend hours poring over baby name books they may imagine that their choice will have a major impact on their child’s life. But do names make a difference? Read this BBC article: Does baby’s name affects its chances in life?

Gregory Clark, the economist behind the book “The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility” notes that there are more than three times as many Eleanors at Oxford than we might expect, given the frequency of that first name among girls in the general population, and Peters, Simons and Annas are not far behind. Conversely, there is less than a 30th of the expected number of Jades and an even smaller proportion of Paiges and Shannons. An Eleanor is 100 times more likely to go to Oxford than a Jade.